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Pilgrimage--Day Two

The Dominican Sisters of Bethany were to meet us at the train station on Friday, June 1, 2012. But the road to the train station is under construction--a car could not get through. So we had to take this little train; it was so cute--a mini bullet train. It was very crowded and when we got in the train, many of the male passengers stood up and gave us their seats. The French are so polite! Sister Renata was explaining in French, to a man who had given up his seat, why our group was traveling. I could visibly see everyone in the train turn their heads to listen to her.

After a short ride we arrived at our stop. The first sight, and a very welcome one at that, was a Dominican sister, in habit, welcoming us with open arms. Deo Gratias! It was Sister Sara Bohmer,op, the Prioress General of the Dominican Sisters of Bethany in Venlo. Imagine, a Prioress General meeting us!

We all hugged and kissed and followed Sister Sara to an awaiting van. As we approached, another Prioress General pops out of the van! It was Sister Pia Elizabeth,op, the Prioress General of the Dominican Sisters of Bethany in Mont. God is too good!

The place is beautiful. We all had our own rooms with a bath. The one thing that surprised me was that they don't have any screens on the windows. I guess in Europe they don't. Don't they have mosquitoes? The supper and all the meals were so exquisitely delicious! It's part of their charism to be hospitable. That's how they show Christian love.

All their food and flowers were from their own gardens. Each table had a bouquet of beautiful cut flowers. There was one other group with us. They were from Catholic French TV. They were there to film the beatification. You can watch what they did on You Tube.

Flower Bouquet

Annunciation

Sister Pauline smelling the flowers.

I did not sleep well that first night. The pillows were strange: one was a bolster pillow and the other was in the shape of a large square--it took up half the bed. I read and journaled and napped now and again and again, for the rest of the night. I guess I was just too excited to sleep.

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Today at Mass, the celebrant told an interesting story. I can't verify it, though. The gospel was the one about Lazarus coming out of the tomb. The priest was talking about Martha's faith. Jesus asked her, "Dost thou believe?" Then the priest tied "faith" to people's beliefs about death. Martha believed all shall be "resurrected, on the last day." Well, it turns out, that many believe this, no matter what they say.

Father said that in 1982, Leonid Brezhnev died. He was the leader of atheistic, communist, Russia. At his funeral, full of military accolades, accouterments, etc., with his coffin surrounded by soldiers, Leonid's wife, Viktoria, trace the sign of the cross on his chest, just before the lid of the coffin was closed.

Remember, this an atheist, communist country. She did this in public. How's that for witnessing?

Here I am in Ireland with a bunch of religiously impaired people. And today is Sunday. From the plans they were devising I knew Mass wasn't on the schedule. I mentioned going to Mass but they said "We're going to the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock Wednesday. You will have all the church you want then.

Bummer 😩

So, We were planning on going shopping in Claddagh. We parked along the harbor and we're walking to the shopping district when I saw a Dominican friar at the entrance of a church greeting people!

Faith is a Lay Dominican with a dual apostolate of cyberministry and prison ministry. She blogs here about her "cloistered brothers," her thoughts, spirituality, prayer, and an occasional poem or two.
She also blogs at http://www.21stcenturydominican.com/ She also updates her chapter's blog, Our Lady of Mercy Chapter,http://sites.google.com/site/ourladyofmercychapter/
Lastly, but in no way, of lesser importance, Faith is the general editor of ELUMEN, the internet newsletter for Lay Dominicans in the Eastern Province of St. Joseph. http://www.3op.org/
To subscribe to ELUMEN, contact prouille_1216@comcast.net
May all I do be for the greater glory of God.